This invention relates generally to postage printing systems. More particularly, this invention is directed to a postage printing system including a printer and a label stock adapted to be fed through the printer where the printer prints postal payment information on a first label segment and a destination address on a second label segment.
Postage printing systems are well known in the art. A typical postage meter (one example of a postage printing system) includes an accounting structure and a printer so as to apply evidence of postage, commonly referred to as postal indicia, to an envelope or other mailpiece and accounts for the value of the postage dispensed. Generally, the accounting structure and the printer are integrated into the same housing and are dedicated devices. Examples of such postage printing systems are the PostPerfect(copyright) postage meter and the Paragon(copyright) II mail processor, both of which are available from Pitney Bowes Inc. of Stamford, Conn.
As is well known, postage meters include an ascending register, that stores a running total of all postage dispensed by the meter, and a descending register, that holds the remaining amount of postage credited to the meter and that is reduced by the amount of postage dispensed during a transaction. The postage meter generally also includes a control sum register that provides a check upon the descending and ascending registers. The control sum register has a running account of the total funds having been added into the meter. As a result, the control sum register must always correspond with the summed readings of the ascending and descending registers. Thus, the control sum register is the total amount of postage ever put into the machine and it is alterable only when adding funds to the meter. In this manner, by inspecting the various registers and securing them from tampering, the dispensing of postal funds may be accurately recorded, tracked and accounted for.
More recently, postage printing systems have been developed where the accounting structure described above is physically separated from the printer. In some postage printing systems, the accounting structure is not even resident with the user of the postage printing system. For example, in a xe2x80x9cvirtual postage meterxe2x80x9d environment, the user does not possess a physical accounting structure as described above. Instead, postage is dispensed electronically over suitable communication channels (LAN, WAN, telephone lines, Internet, etc.) to a personal computer and printed using a general purpose printer, such as those commonly available from Hewlett-Packard, Canon, Epson and others, attached to the personal computer. The user maintains an account with a remotely located data center (maintained by an authorized postage meter manufacturer) and receives postage securely using appropriate electronic data interchange techniques. At a later time, the user is invoiced for the amount of postage dispensed and any other fees associated with maintaining the account with the data center. In other types of postage metering systems, the user does maintain a small electronic device attached to a personal computer that services as the accounting structure described above. However, in both types of systems, the user utilizes the general purpose printer for printing postage indicia.
Oftentimes, a secret code or token is derived from information particular to the mailpiece (the indicated postage amount, date, recipient address information, etc.) and is incorporated or embedded into the postal indicium for later use by a postal authority in verifying the integrity of the postal indicium. Thus, the postal authority typically requires a correspondence between the postal indicium and its associated address. Examples of such systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,718 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,038.
These types of postage printing systems require that the user feed the mailpiece through the general purpose printer so that a postal indicium may be printed thereon. In the case where the mailpiece is a standard size business envelope, such as a #10 envelope, this may be accomplished with relative ease once the idiosyncrasies of feeding envelopes through the printer (input location, orientation, registration, etc.) have been learned. On the other hand, other types of mailpieces, such as: small envelopes, oversized envelopes, thick envelopes, post cards, boxes, tubes, etc., are irregularly sized and cannot be fed through general purpose printers. Thus, other arrangements must be made to accommodate applying postage indicia to these types of irregular mailpieces.
To address this issue, it is known to print postage indicia on labels and apply the labels to the irregular mailpieces. Generally, the label stock may be fed through the general purpose printer to effect printing postage indicia. Alternatively, where increased productivity is desired, the general purpose printer may be replaced with a specialized label printer such as those commonly available from CoStar Corporation of Greenwich, Conn. or Eltron International, Inc. of California. An example of such a postage printing system including a specialized label printer is described in PCT patent application number PCT/US98/19688, entitled A COMBINATION ADDRESS AND POSTAGE LABEL AND SYSTEM FOR PRODUCING THE SAME, published on Apr. 1, 1999. In this system, blank adhesive label stock containing separable label segments is fed through the printer. Once the postal indicium, address and other data has been printed, the user separates the individual label segments and places them on a mailpiece.
Although such a system may prove useful, it suffers from certain drawbacks and disadvantages. First, there is a risk that the user may not locate the label segments properly on the mailpiece. For example, postal authority requirements usually dictate the location of the postal indicium on the mailpiece and the necessary spacing of the address field and other printed matter with respect to the postal indicium. In this manner, the mailpiece may be more easily processed by the automated mail handling equipment. Second, there is a risk that the user may inadvertently mix label segments intended for one mailpiece with label segments intended for another mailpiece. For example, it is not visually discernable which postal indicium label segment goes with which address label segment. Therefore, due to human error, if two labels are printed, a postal indicium label segment from a first label and an address label segment from a second label may be placed on one mailpiece while a postal indicium label segment from a second label and an address label segment from a first label may be placed on another mailpiece. The result is that the postal authority will reject both mailpieces during the verification process and return them to the user because of the unique correspondence between each postal indicium and its address described above. This wastes time and money for both the user and the postal authority.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved postage printing system for printing on label stock that provides safeguards for handling label segments. More particularly, there is a need for a postage printing system including a printer and a label stock adapted to be fed through the printer where the printer prints postal payment information on a first label segment, a destination address on a second label segment and graphical information on both the first label segment and the second label segment that provides for a visual association between the segments.
The present invention provides methods and a system for improving the ability of humans to recognize a correspondence between a postal indicium label and a recipient address label. Generally, this is accomplished by producing inspection images on each of the labels that humans would visually recognize as have a relationship that would indicate that they correspond to each other.
In accordance with the present invention, a method of producing a mailpiece includes the following steps: (i) printing a postal indicium and a first inspection image on a first label segment; and (ii) printing a recipient address and a second inspection image on a second label segment; (iii) applying the first label segment and the second label segment to the mailpiece. The first inspection image and the second inspection image have a human visible relationship indicating that the first label segment and the second label segment correspond to each other.
In accordance with the present invention, a method of operating a postage printing system and a postage printing system are also provided.
Therefore, it is now apparent that the present invention substantially overcomes the disadvantages associated with the prior art. Additional advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.